Starship Asterisk*

The Glowing Hand of God (CG-4) by William Ostling, on Flickr

Full write-up here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/cg4/

This is yet another telescope live image. The H-Alpha data really made this image come to life – it was actually a bit disappointing seeing how little dim dust the RGB image contained when comparing to other images. Regardless, seeing the depths of the hydrogen gas was really stunning. I’ve also been working on a new processing technique where I separate broadband and narrowband gas, which allows to to better control both levels. I think it works quite well!

Can a gas cloud eat a galaxy? It’s not even close. The “claw” of this odd looking “creature” in the featured photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and elongated tails. These features cause cometary globules to have visual similarities to comets, but in reality they are very much different. Globules are frequently the birthplaces of stars, and many show very young stars in their heads. The reason for the rupture in the head of this object is not yet known. The galaxy to the left of the globule is huge, very far in the distance, and only placed near CG4 by chance superposition.

Website: https://theastroenthusiast.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

Category: PANORAMA
Social IG: @victorlimaphoto
Story:
The Iguazu Falls illuminated by the full moon on a night worthy of one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World.
This image was captured from the top viewpoint of the Iguaçu Falls, near Garganta do Diabo, the heart of the Iguaçu National Park.
Despite the Falls having only 40% of the normal flow at the time of this capture, which greatly reduces the spray from the waterfalls, it was still possible to record a beautiful lunar rainbow (Moonbow) just ahead of Salto Santa Maria, the main waterfall on the Brazilian side of the Iguaçu National Park.
Moonbow is a natural phenomenon that occurs when the light of the moon refracts and reflects off water droplets in the air, creating a rainbow-like arc of colors. Like a rainbow, a moonbow displays a range of colors, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, but the colors are usually much fainter due to the dimmer light of the moon.
Moonbows are most commonly seen at night, especially during a full moon, when the moon is bright enough to illuminate the water droplets. They are typically seen in areas with high humidity and where there is a source of falling water, such as a waterfall or a fountain. Moonbows are relatively rare and require specific weather conditions, including a clear sky and enough moisture in the air to create the water droplets needed to refract and reflect the light of the moon.
EXIF:
Canon R6 / EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II
3X 16mm / 5 sec / f:2.8 / ISO 2000

Iguassu Falls & Full Moon by Victor Lima, no Flickr

CASPER, THE FRIENDLY GHOST NEBULA
- MESSIER 78
- Deep sky 1800mm hALRGB
- Constellation Orionis



This magical nebula is one of my favorite objects in the starry sky, which unfortunately I have not yet photographed myself. It is associated with the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and is approximately 1600 light-years from our solar system. The two brightest stars in this nebula, HD 38563A and HD 38563B, are magnitude 10, making this gorgeous reflection nebula glow
The dark bands that snake around the nebula are thick clouds of dust that block visible light from objects behind. These dense, cold regions are the main birthplaces for new stars.
The youngest stars in the making are T Tauri stars. Also spotted were 17 Herbig-Haro objects, small nebulae around young stars. They are formed when gas ejected from the star meets clouds of dust. Herbig-Haro objects are ubiquitous in star-forming regions. Often they are seen around a single star where they are aligned along its axis of rotation. Herbig-Haro objects are very short-lived, with a lifespan of a few thousand years at best. They can become visible in a very short time as they move rapidly away from their star of origin and into the cloud of gas in interstellar space (also called interstellar matter).

Equipment & recording dates:
Dream Aerospace Systems' 16-inch Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1) 1800mm focal length astrograph imaging telescope.
Lights: L 22x 300s // R 24x 300s, G 23x 300s & B 22x 300s // hA 13x 600s (flats, darks, bias calibrated, dithering)
Location: USA, Utah, Great Basin Desert. Remote Telescope Insight Observatory. Acquired image data set.

Image editing:
Mainly Pixinsight, Photoshop, Lightroom, GraXpert, BTX Blur Terminator, Noise Terminator, Star X Terminator

THE HORSEHEAD NEBULA
- IC434
- Deep sky 1800mm hALRGB
- Constellation Orionis



One of the most beautiful and impressive celestial objects in the winter Milky Way is the famous Horsehead Nebula. Wrapped in the red plumes of IC 434, an emission nebula in the constellation of Orion at the celestial equator, backlit and visible is the Horsehead Nebula, a dark cloud on the same line of sight.
The nebula is located south of the bright star Alnitak in Orion's Belt. Because of its equatorial position, it can be observed from all inhabited areas of the world, depending on the season. Due to its low brightness, however, it is only visible with long exposures or with medium-sized telescopes. The nebula borders the molecular cloud Orion B to the west and is 70 arc minutes long but only a few arc minutes wide. Its shape resembles a long, striped blade running in a north-south direction. The eastern part is partially obscured by a dark cloud belonging to Orion B and known as the Horsehead Nebula because of its characteristic shape.
The Horsehead Nebula is about 1,500 light-years from Earth and appears a quarter the size of Earth's Moon. The nebula is a collection of cold gas and dust that emits very little light in the visible spectrum and therefore appears dark.
Investigations in the millimeter and submillimeter range show that the nebula consists mainly of molecular hydrogen and that it also contains a large number of different simple hydrocarbon compounds, some with oxygen and sulfur content. These molecules have a temperature of around 100 Kelvin in the outer region and 15 Kelvin in the core of the nebula; it has about 27 times the mass of the Sun. The gas masses are moving, which is why the nebula will lose its resemblance to a horse's head in a few thousand years.

Equipment & recording dates:
Dream Aerospace Systems' 16-inch Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1) 1800mm focal length astrograph imaging telescope. Camera FLI16803, Chroma filter set.
Lights: L 14x 300s Bin1x1 // R 16x 300s, G 11x 300s & B 10x 300s Bin 2x2 (flats, darks, bias calibrated, dithering)
Location: USA, Utah, Great Basin Desert. Remote Telescope Insight Observatory. Acquired image data set.

6" 150PDS Skywatcher
Lights: hA 14x 600s Bin1x1 (flats, darks, bias calibrated, dithering). Camera Atik16200 mono, filter set astronomy
Location: Tulln a.d. Danube, Austria. balcony observatory.

Image editing:
Mainly Pixinsight, Photoshop, Lightroom, GraXpert, BTX Blur Terminator, Noise Terminator, Star X Terminator

"Spiral Barred Galaxy NGC1365"
- Deepsky 3411mm LRGB
- Constellation Fornax



NGC 1365 is a Hubble-type SBb barred spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Fornax. The shape of the bars is striking and it is one of the best-known barred spiral galaxies. NGC 1365 has a magnitude of 9.5 and an angular extent of 11′.0 × 6′.2. The galaxy is about 68 million light-years distant and over 200,000 light-years across. NGC 1365 is a Type 2 Seyfert galaxy and belongs to the Fornax cluster of galaxies. It rotates clockwise as seen from Earth; a complete rotation takes about 350 million years.

The astronomers are particularly interested in the complex movement of interstellar matter in the galaxy and how it affects the gas supplies from which new stars are formed. The massive bar perturbs the galaxy's gravitational field, compressing gas in certain areas and stimulating star formation. Countless young star clusters can be seen in the spiral arms, each containing hundreds or thousands of young and bright stars, all formed within the last ten million years.

As is usual with spiral galaxies, the center of NGC 1365 is a supermassive black hole (SMBH). By a stroke of luck (a cloud of gas moved into the line of sight between Earth and the center of the galaxy), the space-based Chandra X-ray telescope was recently able to map the X-ray emitting gas disk around the black hole. According to the measurement, the gas disk has a diameter of 7 AU, which is only ten times the calculated event horizon.[5] Four supernovae have been observed in NGC 1365 so far: SN 1957C (type unknown), SN 1983V (type Ic), SN 2001du (type II-P) and SN 2012fr (type Ia).

The object was discovered on November 24, 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.

Taken with a Planewave CDK 20", focal 3411m, f/6.8 and a FLI PL 16803 CCD, filter: Astrodon Gen2 series E.
Lights: 26x 900s L, 17x 900s R, 19x 900s G, 18x 900s B.
14-day premium image data set from iTelescope (T59 setup), sited at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia.

Shooting Conditions: Clear nights, Bortle 1 sky

The Eyes Galaxies
The Eyes Galaxies (NGC 4435 and 4438) are a pair of adjacent galaxies in the Markarian Chain,

NGC 4435 and NGC 443 are lied about 50 million light-years away and are about 100,000 light-years apart. In rich clusters of galaxies, such as the Virgo Cluster, galaxy collisions are fairly frequent, so it's possible NGC 4438 suffered from encounters with both NGC 4435 and Messier 86.

The Eyes Galaxies are one of the best-known interacting galaxies in the sky, along with the nearby Siamese Twins, the Whirlpool Galaxy (Messier 51) in Canes Venatici, the Mice Galaxies in Coma Berenices, Antennae Galaxies in Corvus, and NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in Canis Major.

NGC 4435 is a compact barred lenticular galaxy that appears to be almost devoid of dust and gas. The galaxy contains a young population of stars on its central regions. Discovered by the Spitzer Space Telescope, the stars have an estimated age of 190 million years and may have formed as a result of the galaxy’s interaction with the neighbouring NGC 4438.

NGC 4438 has long tidal tails and a very distorted disk, which has led to scientists classifying it either as a spiral or lenticular galaxy. The galaxy was likely once a spiral galaxy, but encounters with its neighbours over the last few hundred million years have left it damaged and badly deformed. NGC 4438 has an obscuring lane of dust just below its nucleus and young stars can be seen to the left of its centre.


Telescope: RC16"
Mount: ASA DDM85XL
Reducer: Massimo Riccardi Reducer 0.75x
CMOS:QHY268C (resolution 0.32"/px)
Total exposure: 29.6 h (178x600sec)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/194102627@N04/
Copyright: Lluís Romero

The Tom Thumb Cluster (NGC6451)

MORE DETAILS
https://www.astrobin.com/full/opa0i4/0/

EQUIPMENT:
ZWO ASI 6200MC COLED
Esprit 150mm
99 X 100"
DATE: 04/04/2023 AND 04/05/2023

Location: Munhoz - MG - Brazil
PROCESSING AND CAPTURE:
Adobe Lightroom Classic · Adobe Photoshop · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight

Author: Fernando Oliveira de Menezes
Email: Barretosmed@hotmail.com
(Organizing author of the book Astrofotografia Amadora no Brasil)
[https://clubedeautores.com.br/livro/ast ... -no-brasil]

hi! this is my very first post in the Forum, hope you like it.

Story:

This picture was taken on march 25, 2023 at 21:15 from the slopes of Llaima volcano (Conguillío National Park) in Araucanía region in Chile. We can see the moon and pleiades conjunction, Venus, Urano, Mars and Orion among others.
In the foreground we can see some araucaria trees, commonly called the monkey puzzle tree, monkey tail tree, piñonero, pewen or Chilean pine, which is an evergreen tree native to central and southern Chile and western Argentina, in fact the distribution is bouded between the 37th parallel south and 40th parallel south, mostly in the chilean part of the Andes. Because of the prevalence of similar species in ancient prehistory, it is sometimes called a living fossil; individuals can achieve ages beyond 1,000 years. In this park was filmed the BBC documentary "Walking with Dinosaurs" (1999) for it resemblance to prehistoric landscapes of volcanoes, lagoons and araucaria trees. More recently it was part of the 2022 Netflix documentary "Our Great National Parks" (Episode 2: Chilean Patagonia), presented by former president of the United States Barack Obama.

Exif:
Nikon D850
Tamron SP 15-30 f2.8 at 15mm
0.8 sec f/2.8 ISO 1600

Copyright: Rodrigo Pastor Pensa
ig: @vitopastorini

THE RUNNING CHICKEN NEBULA
- IC2948
- Deep sky 1800mm hALRGB
- Constellation Centaurus



Another beautiful emission nebula found in the constellation Centaurus in the southern sky. It is a neighboring nebula to the bombastic Eta Carinae nebula complex. This nebula rewards us with its detailed structure, which is particularly evident in narrow-band recordings. The nebula has a low surface brightness and shows several "Bok Globules", small dark nebulae resembling blobs or globules in the image. They are composed of, among other things, molecular hydrogen gas, as well as helium and variable amounts of silicate dust. The globules in this nebula were discovered by David Thackery, and are thus also known as "Thackery Globoli".
The emission nebula is powered by the open star cluster IC2944, also known as the Cadwell 100 cluster.

Equipment & recording dates:
Dream Aerospace Systems' 16-inch Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1) 1800mm focal length astrograph imaging telescope. Camera FLI16803, Chroma filter set.
Lights: L 14x 300s Bin1x1 // R 16x 300s, G 11x 300s & B 10x 300s Bin 2x2 (flats, darks, bias calibrated, dithering)
Location: USA, Utah, Great Basin Desert. Remote Telescope Insight Observatory. Acquired image data set.

Image editing:
Mainly Pixinsight, Photoshop, Lightroom, GraXpert, BTX Blur Terminator, Noise Terminator, Star X Terminator

#constellationcentaurus #IC2948 #runningchickennebula #universe #artofpixastro #astrophotography #insightobervatory

This is the open cluster M37 in the constellation Auriga, but with a twist!

Using my Hydrogen Alpha filter, I spent 10 hours gathering HA data on this cluster and, to my surprise, it revealed a nebula within M37! After doing some research, it appears that this nebula was only found a few months ago by a team of scientists (paper can be found here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3 ... 213/ac88c1 ) and that it had only been photographed in color once or twice. I originally had no idea that there was a nebula there but was simply trying to discover something new. Of course I was sad when I realized that it had been found just 6 months before, but oh well.

Given the designation "IPHASX J055226.2+323724", this small planetary nebula is mostly made up of Hydrogen Alpha, with some Oxygen III as well. It is believed to be the oldest planetary nebula ever found in the universe, at 70-80,000 years old.

The object is just the 3rd planetary nebula ever found in an open cluster, at least as of right now.

Thank you

Equipment:
SVX130 + GM1000HPS
QHY600M with RGB+HA filters
Bortle 2 Utah Desert Remote Observatories
13 hours of exposure total (1 hour each RGB and 10 hours HA)

Credit:
Antoine and Dalia Grelin
https://www.galactic-hunter.com/

Venus - Pleiades conjunction. The image was taken April 10th at 9pm from just outside Philadelphia. This is not a composite image; it was taken using 30 exposures of 30 seconds.

Telescope - William Optics Redcat 51 f/4,9
Camera - Zwo ASI 2600 MC Pro
Mount - Zwo AM5
Filter - none
Exposure 30x30s, Gain 100

The Spider (IC 417) and Fly (NGC 1931) nebulae are situated in Auriga, at around 10 000 and 7000 light years away.
Click on above to enlarge

Full info & higher resolution @ https://www.kinchastro.com/spider--fly.html

Eta Carinae - SHO

Image of the Eta Carina Nebula processed in the SHO color palette. Data from Telescope Live.

2x 600" Ha
2x 600" OIII
2x 600" SII

Stellare RH200
FLI ML 16200
El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile

date: 11 April, 2011

Images were stacked and registered in APP. Processed in Pix Insight and finalized in Photoshop.

Eta Carinae Nebula by Ahmed Waddah, on Flickr

https://www.astrobin.com/2uaa7d/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waddah.photography
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/users/WolfHeart/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/waddahphotography/

M 51
m 51 HaRGB 22h10 VF2 by georges chassaigne, sur Flickr


TheWhirlpool Galaxy, also known asMessier 51a (M51a) orNGC 5194, is an interacting grand-designspiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus.It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy.It is about 31millionlight-years(9.5Mpc) away from Earth and 76,900ly (23,580pc) in diameter.

This is the first full mineral moon of Spring 2023, otherwise known as the Pink Moon. Been reading about the upcoming launch next year of Artemis II and was super excited at trying to image the moon. Wonderful timing for me and also my first time imaging and processing a 99.4% waning gibbous moon. Naturally not very pink, but a beautiful sight nonetheless.

Date: Thursday 23:12, April 7, 2023
Best 40% of 269 Frames (107 Frames)
Equipment: Celestron C8 SCT XLT, Avx Mount, ZWO 294MC Pro
Processing: Pixinsight, Autostakkert, SharpCap Pro
Exposures: 3.3 ms

Astrobin Link:[https://www.astrobin.com/515ch1/]

Jeff cyrwheel completo bby jessica rojas by Jessica Rojas


Complete moonrise video at real time.
If this video is too long, you can edit for make it shorter for social media channels

EXIF.

Nikon D750 with 200-500 Nikkor
Video FHD 2k
Full moon at 100%


Setting up the platform for Jeff to spin on the mountain was the most challenging setup I've ever done for the moon crazyness - it was an absolute madness bc it weight is 200kg!

Kind thanks guys!

The Lion nebula, in Cepheus.

Taken from my backyard, in South Sardinia.
I used a Celestron RASA 8 with ZWO ASI 183 Mc-Pro


40x300" with IDAS NBZ (Ha + OIII)
30x10" with Optolong L-Pro


SH2-132 The Lion nebula by Giancarlo Melis, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/528 ... 2e7f_k.jpg

Thanks for watching.

Venus - Pleiades conjuction


Copyright: Rafael Schmall
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Rafeee/

One of the most spectacular astronomical phenomena of the month of April was the conjunction of Venus and Pleiades.

Image Details:
Equipment: Canon EOS6D, Danubia 80-200, SkyWatcher Star-Adventurer
Exif data: 2 x 20 sec, ISO1600, f5,6, 200mm (with6 star diffusion filter)
Processing: Photoshop

Location: Hungary, Zselic Starry Sky Park, Zselic Park of Stars

H-alpha sun - The jumping giraffe
Copyright: Rafael Schmall
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Rafeee/

On this day, there was a 1 seeing, but at least the sun was shining and it was quite a beautiful sight in the solar telescope. In this case, the protuberance took the funny shape of a leaping giraffe.

Image Details:
Equipment: Lunt LS-100, ZWO ASI 290MM, Fornax 120
Exif data: exp: 0,5ms, gain:150, 1min 25%
Processing: Firecapture, PIPP, Autostakkert3, Photoshop

Location: Hungary, Zselic Starry Sky Park, Zselic Park of Stars

Stars and Globules in the Running Chicken Nebula by William Ostling, on Flickr

Full write-up here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/stars-an ... en-nebula/

Here’s an SHO image from telescope live. This dataset had a pretty interesting quirk, which was that some of the given astronometric solutions from telescope live were formatted incorrectly, which broke WBPP and forced me to do some shady coding. Anyway, I’ve been working on a new method of SHO processing using MMT and GHS to even the midtones of each channel, which give the final image a lot more color. It also helps that this region has such a big diversity of gas emission.

To some, it looks like a giant chicken running across the sky. To others, it looks like a gaseous nebula where star formation takes place. Cataloged as IC 2944, the Running Chicken Nebula spans about 100 light years and lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Centaur (Centaurus). The featured image, shown in scientifically assigned colors, was captured recently in a 16-hour exposure over three nights. The star cluster Collinder 249 is visible embedded in the nebula’s glowing gas. Although difficult to discern here, several dark molecular clouds with distinct shapes can be found inside the nebula.


Website: https://theastroenthusiast.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/

Mercury at Greatest Eastern Elongation (2023)
http://www.perseus.gr
Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis
Mercury is currently visible naked-eye owing to its greatest eastern elongation from the Sun at about 19.5 degrees.

Further details available at https://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Planet-Mer-20230413.htm and https://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Planet-Mer-20230413b.htm.

By Michael Armentrout
Arizona
March 19th 2023

M106 (NGC 4258)
M106 the Main Galaxy in this image is estimated to be between 22 and 25 million light years away from earth, the farthest galaxy i could find data on in this image PGC2299122 and PGC2299019 within what i call the miniature Markarian chain lol are estimated to both be 3.8 billion light years away from earth. for comparison earths moon is roughly 238,855 miles away which is about 1 light second. the Sun Being 94-95million miles away is roughly 8 light minutes. So far far away there are others in this image that are not documented that could be much farther away and much closer to the beginning of the universe.
M106 is a very active galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center that has been observed by scientists additionally M106 has played an important
role in determining and in calibrating cosmic distances due to cepheid variable stars that pulsate similarly to other galaxies.

90*300s L
90*300s H
50*300s R
50*300s G
50*300s B

Scope: ASKAR 130 PHQ (1000mm Focal length)
Guide scope: ASKAR OAG
Mount: Ioptron CEM70
Main Camera: ZWO 294mm pro (Bin 2 120gain)
Guide Camera: ZWO 174mm mini
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Filter wheel: ZWO EFW
Filters: ANTILA LRGB and 3nm HA
Capture Computer: MELE Quieter 3
Capture software: NINA
EDITINGL PIXINSIGHT

NGC 1499 Mountains of California by Mathieu Guinot, sur Flickr

Hello everyone,

Here is a close-up view of a region of NGC 1499. If the shape of this cosmic cloud seen as a whole in many beautiful pictures evokes California, then we are here in the Sierra Nevada mountains! The shapes carved in the gas and dust clouds and the impression of relief reinforce this comparison with the famous American region and I found it interesting to frame this part of the nebula where the ionized gas erodes and spreads out into space.

The amount of signal and detail on the S and H layers is quite impressive, while the O layer is weak and diffuse but sufficient to offer the possibilities of a nice mix. Of course and as usual, the SHO rendering leaves room for color mapping and interpretation which make the processing very funny with interesting artistic possibilities, while respecting the distribution of the components of this beautiful object.

25h exposures from 26/02 to 27/03/2023 in Amiens (France).
Telescope Takahashi TOA130
Eq6-r mount
Camera ZWO 2600mm

Cosmic Jellyfish by Wael Omar, on Flickr
Jellyfish Nebula - also known as IC 443 and Sh2-248.

Jellyfish nebula is the remnant of a massive star that ran out of fuel and exploded as Supernova that result in this bulbous 'head' shape which gives this nebula its name “Jellyfish”. The nebula located in the constellation “Gemini” , approximately 5000 light-years from Earth

There are suggestion also that the explosion may have created a spinning neutron star known as a pulsar , The pulsar produces a beam of radiation which sweeps by like a beacon of light from a lighthouse and can be detected as pulses of radio waves and other types of radiation. You could see the pulsar here in my image as the big star on the left of the Jellyfish nebula.

Equipment used:
Camera: ZWO 294 mm pro
Scope : Redcat51, 250 mm focal length
Settings :
Antlia Ha 3nm : 22 * 600 seconds , Gain 120
Optolong OIII 6.5 nm: 24*600 seconds, Gain 120.
Astronomik RGB filters : 40*30 seconds each.

The image is processed in HOO palette .
Location : Wadi El-Hitan ,EGYPT.

Credit: Wael Omar WO /https://www.instagram.com/waelomar_astrophotography/

Hi
It is a rather particular composition of the comet C/2022E3 ZTF, which passed a short time ago.
I used UV and IR850 filters to give another angle of view for this comet.
Everything is done with a Newton Telescope 300mm F4 and a Playerone Saturn 533NB
February 11 and 12, 2023 with unit exposure times of 8s for an overall exposure time of 2 hours. the full:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/528 ... 7074_k.jpg